#myquiltcouldlivehere- Denim Lone Star

I am so happy that I made this Lone Star Quilt. Its my second one (the first one is totally different) and I understand much more now, about the piecing and layout especially. When I decided to do an upcycled, denim version, I thought it would be fun to play with different shades and washes, because let’s face it, indigo is a beautiful color in any shade. I also wanted to do some fussy piecing and precision piecing with denim. Denim is much thicker than quilting cotton, which off the bat makes it trickier to piece and sew small. Also, so many denim fabrics have stretch in them these days, which is awesome if you’re wearing them, but in patchwork, it can distort and make perfect points a foregone conclusion. (I could have added a lightweight fusible stabilizer to the back and take out the stretch component, but I didn’t want to make an already thick fabric feel thicker in this quilt.)

The piecing was slow. There was no rushing through lining up those points. I pinned in a few places, but mainly I used my favorite tool, my stiletto, to help guide the fabric through the machine. I use this tool almost like a pin to hold fabrics in place.
The lavender fabric I chose for surrounding the star was a total surprise. I knew I wanted a pop, but wasn’t feeling any particular color. Coral was my first thought, but it made the whole piece feel bolder than I wanted. White or cream denim muted it down more than I wanted. Somewhere I came across this lavender/lilac shade and felt it was right the second I saw it. I tend to go with my gut feeling when it comes to choosing colors, and when a group of colors feels exciting to me, I go with it. I used the same lavender fabric for the binding.

The negative space around the star gave me some opportunity to play with a lot of free motion quilting. First, I ditched the seams of the star, then did small pebbling in a square shape I drew out behind the star in matching thread. Finally, a gentle freehand chain design around the outer edges.

It measures 50″ square and it will most likely hang in our front entryway when I repaint it. That’s another reason I chose the colors the way I did, it’ll be pretty to look up at (it will hang on a high wall above eye level, it won’t be seen from close up). The design is nice from a distance, and will draw the eye towards it.

I see this quilt living in a neutral surrounding. Pieces that surround it are maybe salvaged, handed down, rescued from the side of the road, and everything is now loved in a new, personal space. Its like a breath of fresh air to walk inside at the end of the day.